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Australian Goldfields Open

Tournament information
Venue	Bendigo Stadium
Location	Bendigo
Country	Australia
Established	1979
Organisation(s)	World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association
Format	Ranking event
Total prize fund	$500,000
Final year	2015
Final champion	John Higgins

The Australian Goldfields Open was a professional ranking snooker tournament. The final champion was John Higgins in 2015.

History

Australia had previously hosted the 1971 and 1975 World Snooker Championships, as well as several other high-profile snooker tournaments and in 1979 the Australian Masters was established. There was an attempt to turn the event into a ranking tournament in 1989 but the sponsorship fell through so it was staged in Hong Kong instead, as the Hong Kong Open, which incidentally became the first ranking tournament to be staged in Asia. The Hong Kong event was discontinued after just one year, but returned to Australia in 1994 as the Australian Open. The tournament reverted to being called the Australian Masters for the following season, but was dropped from the calendar after the 1995 event. In addition, the tournament was also held in 1995 as the Australian Open immediately following the Australian Masters, featuring mostly the same players and the same two players in the final. In 2011 the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association resurrected the event under the Australian Goldfields Open name and added it to the 2011/2012 calendar. The tournament's later incarnation providing the first ranking tournament victories for future World Champion Stuart Bingham and future world finalist Barry Hawkins and arguably resurrected the careers of these two players who had previously been considered journeyman professionals, who had previously hovered between the fringes of the top 16 and top 32.

In 2016, the event was quietly dropped from the calendar.

Winners

Year	Winner	Runner-up	Final score	City	Season
Australian Masters (non-ranking)
1979	Ian Anderson	Perrie Mans	Aggregate Score	Sydney	1979/80
1980	John Spencer	Dennis Taylor	Aggregate Score		1980/81
1981	Tony Meo	John Spencer	Aggregate Score		1981/82
1982	Steve Davis	Eddie Charlton	254–100 points		1982/83
1983	Cliff Thorburn	Bill Werbeniuk	7–3		1983/84
1984	Tony Knowles	John Virgo	7–3		1984/85
1985	Tony Meo	John Campbell	7–2		1985/86
1986	Dennis Taylor	Steve Davis	3–2		1986/87
1987	Stephen Hendry	Mike Hallett	371–226 points		1987/88
Hong Kong Open (ranking)
1989	Mike Hallett	Dene O'Kane	9–8	Hong Kong	1989/90
Australian Open (non-ranking)
1994	John Higgins	Willie Thorne	9–5	Melbourne	1994/95
Australian Masters (non-ranking)
1995	Anthony Hamilton	Chris Small	8–6	Melbourne	1995/96
Australian Open (non-ranking)
1995	Anthony Hamilton	Chris Small	9–7	Melbourne	1995/96
Australian Goldfields Open (ranking)
2011	Stuart Bingham	Mark Williams	9–8	Bendigo	2011/12
2012	Barry Hawkins	Peter Ebdon	9–3		2012/13
2013	Marco Fu	Neil Robertson	9–6		2013/14
2014	Judd Trump	Neil Robertson	9–5		2014/15
2015	John Higgins	Martin Gould	9–8		2015/16

Notes

1. ^ The finals were decided on aggregate score over three frames between 1979 and 1982 and five frames in 1987.

See also

• Cue sports in Australia

References

1. Kalb, Rolf (29 June 2014). "Turnier-Infos: Australian Open" (in German). Eurosport Deutschland. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 30 June 2014.
2. ^ Hayton, Eric. Cuesport Book of Professional Snooker. p. 167.
3. Turner, Chris. "Australian Masters". Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 30 September 2010. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
4. Hayton, Eric (2004). The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker. Lowestoft: Rose Villa Publications. p. 31. ISBN 0-9548549-0-X.
5. Turner, Chris. "Other Asia Ranking Events". Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
6. ^ Hayton, Eric (2004). The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker. Suffolk: Rose Villa Publications. pp. 165–167. ISBN 978-0-9548549-0-4.
7. "Hall of Fame". Snooker.org. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
8. "Stuart Bingham beats Mark Williams 9–8 to win Australian Open". BBC Sport. 24 July 2011. Archived from the original on 1 May 2012. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
9. "Australian Goldfields Open (2012)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 4 June 2012.
10. "Australian Goldfields Open (2013)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 22 May 2012.
11. "Australian Goldfields Open (2014)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 23 May 2014.
12. "Australian Goldfields Open (2015)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 April 2015.

• Australian Goldfields Open
• Recurring sporting events established in 1979
• 1979 establishments in Australia
• Snooker ranking tournaments
• Snooker competitions in Australia
• Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2015
• 2015 disestablishments in Australia
• Defunct snooker competitions
• Defunct sports competitions in Australia